Janss Exhibit Reflects Link With a Master

As a teenage photography aficionado, Larry Janss had the experience of a lifetime: He learned from the old master himself, Ansel Adams, how to shoot dramatic landscapes in black and white. In Yosemite no less.

Janss--whose wealthy family is a part of local lore as the early developers of Thousand Oaks, Westwood, Boyle Heights and other communities--later assisted Adams during the 1970s, once helping him produce prints of what is perhaps his most famous photograph, “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico.”

In fact, Janss recalls being asked to destroy half a dozen prints of the photo, originals of which now sell for thousands of dollars, because Adams considered them flawed in some imperceptible way that Janss could not comprehend.

“It was kind of like meeting John Lennon or something,” said the 46-year-old Thousand Oaks native. “One of the great life moments for me is that I had become so fond of Ansel, and he became fond of me in a certain way.

“I wanted to be in the workshop again, and he wrote me and he said, ‘The waiting list has grown,’ something or other, ‘and I can’t fit you.’ My heart just sank. But then I read on and he said, ‘I could use you as an assistant, if you could work for free.’ I was out the door.”

Despite his encounter with greatness, or perhaps because of it, Janss put down his camera for two decades, returning to his passion just 10 years ago--after working on documentary films, operating a movie theater in Venice and helping run a family owned farming operation in Idaho.

Now Janss says he is more engrossed in photography than ever, and he has finally developed the confidence to show his work.

On Saturday, Borders Books and Music on Thousand Oaks Boulevard--which leases the former site of the Conejo Bowl from Janss for its store--will host a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. for his new exhibit, “Photography of the Last Decade.”

The exhibit, only his third ever in Ventura County, will run until April 27. And Janss, now a photography teacher himself at Cal Lutheran University, said he is just beginning to realize the legacy left to him by Adams, who died in 1984 at age 82. Because of this, Janss has decided to share some of the exhibition with his prize pupil, 20-year-old Mark Bash.

“He’s taught me a lot, in class and out of class,” said Bash, who assists Janss with his courses and his personal photography. “I’ve always dreamed of meeting Ansel, and obviously I can’t do that anymore. But I’m learning from Larry, and this is the closest I’ll get to Ansel. I am learning from Ansel, in a way.”

In a heartfelt dedication to Adams at the start of the exhibit, Janss makes a similar observation.

“It’s really nice having you with us, when Mark and I are shooting, or when we’re in the darkroom,” Janss wrote. “We know you’re with us. It’s just the three of us.”

*

When Janss decided to shut down the Conejo Bowl two years ago to make way for Borders, he found himself at the center of a red-hot local controversy over home-grown city hangouts being replaced by yuppie-friendly chain establishments.

But Janss believes time has shown the popular bookstore to be in touch with Thousand Oaks’ future.

“I took a lot of heat for that, and I still do,” Janss said. “But the demographics of this area were changing, the defense industry types were leaving, and I was losing my shirt. The bowling alley business tanked.”

Janss selected Borders for his current exhibition but eventually hopes to branch out to galleries. Every year, he attends numerous photography workshops around the globe--some taught by such figures as photographer Bruce Barnbaum, who, like Janss, were once students of Adams, but who are now considered leaders in black-and-white photography.

At a recent workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico, Janss decided to unveil his portfolio for the other photographers to critique.

“They just shredded me,” Janss said. “It’s kind of like taking your past out. It’s very intimate, and to bring it out and show it to someone is really scary.”

*

However, Janss said he has realized that criticism is a part of being a photographer, and much of it can be beneficial when it comes from respected peers. Of course, there is also the opportunity for praise.

Janss’ exhibit is based in part on that criticism from other photographers: He chose the pieces the critics liked. Many of the photos were taken in Micronesia and Mexico, two of his favorite locations.

One of the exhibit’s more prominent pieces--and one of Janss’ most recent works--is called “Klingon Warship Sighted on the Slopes of the Volcano Citlatepetl.” It is a photo of a plant taken in Veracruz.

“I found myself doing some of the best work I have done,” Janss said of his trip to Mexico last year. “I saw it, and I’m no Trekkie, but it looked to me like a Klingon warship. It was just hovering there. It was so luminescent. I spent quite a bit of time with it.”

Hanging out at Borders on Thursday afternoon, Thousand Oaks resident Gerardo Racine, a 23-year-old architecture student, took in Janss’ work slowly. Then he introduced himself to Janss and offered his opinion: It was outstanding.

“They’re not like ordinary black-and-white pictures,” Racine said. “They come alive.”